I am not in favour of having European teams in SLAR. I feel like rugby is out of step with environmental concerns of unnecessary travel. Professional rugby should exist within countries or regions. I am not completely against travel, but I think rugby teams should be undertaking intercontinental travel only once or twice a year, for a tour or to play in a tournament. An Iberian team of Spaniards and Portuguese players touring South America, playing SLAR teams would be a better option, and something I would definitely like to watch.

it is difficult to predict what will happen with the sports economy after covid19. But those leagues operating in the borderline of professionalism may need to step back to an amateur operation. Why? Because they usualy rely on small/local sponsors (that will struggle now) and on local government (that will have less resources to invest in things like pro teams). Professional national teams will probably be more comercialy viable than clubs, but, as I said in another thread, intercontinental competitions might become inviable/too costly. Of course there is always the possibility of millionaires/billionaires funding teams/leagues, but this possibility existed before covid19 anyway...

victorsra wrote:I don't see any reason to do that. It won't create more money or fans, but would add more costs.

If the Kontinental Club Rugby League had gone ahead this year, teams from Romania would have flown to Siberia to play rugby. Italy is a much closer destination. But I guess the Russians would have paid for the flights. There's no money in Romanian rugby or Italian rugby. Flying to Romania would be a big cost, compared to travelling to another north Italian town on a coach. I do however think the Top 12 champions should play the Superliga champions. Surely that could be marketed, sponsored and televised and would cover costs at least.

I don't see a reason for an Italian fan to have more interesting in an Italian-Romanian league than in the current Italian Top 12. And I don't see any reason for a Romanian fan to have more interesting in an Italian-Romanian league than in the current Superliga. It won't bring more money and will only offer less chances for each club to be champions.

victorsra wrote:I don't see any reason to do that. It won't create more money or fans, but would add more costs.

If the Kontinental Club Rugby League had gone ahead this year, teams from Romania would have flown to Siberia to play rugby. Italy is a much closer destination. But I guess the Russians would have paid for the flights. There's no money in Romanian rugby or Italian rugby. Flying to Romania would be a big cost, compared to travelling to another north Italian town on a coach. I do however think the Top 12 champions should play the Superliga champions. Surely that could be marketed, sponsored and televised and would cover costs at least.

No, it wouldn't be marketed nor televised and probably it would not cover the costs, I assure you : )No one in Italy feels rivalry with Romania and neither a special affinity, so the duel wouldn't have real meaning for us; it would be just a sort of unusual friendly game.For an hypothetic Top12 champion v Superliga champion I predict 300 spectators on the stands in Italy; I don't know how much in Romania